LIVE from the CaminoOn the Olvidado

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After a couple of days of flat following the canal de Castilla, getting slowly closer to the snowy montaña Palentina, I reached Aguilar de Campoo and the Camino Olvidado in time for Saturday lunch and a rare chance to see inside the glorious romanesque church of Santa Cecilia, with its capitals of the massacre of the innocents. Then further up the Pisuerga, getting much livelier once its waters stop getting nicked by the reservoir and the canal. Aguilar is a very handsome town and, 28 or so pleasant km upstream, so is Cervera de Pisuerga, much smaller but with similar arcades. And a very comfortable and welcoming private Albergue Rivera de Pisuerga. Also more romanesque, gothic and renaissance on the way, and wonderful mountain views.

Currently in Velilla del río Carrión, hoping to do the scenic mountain route via Caminayo to Puente Almuhey tomorrow, but the cloud is very low and snow level close so may have to revise in the morning. The ancient Fuentes Támaricas here are dry so, according to Pliny the Elder, I should be dead within a week. Hope not.

After a couple of days of flat following the canal de Castilla, getting slowly closer to the snowy montaña Palentina, I reached Aguilar de Campoo and the Camino Olvidado in time for Saturday lunch and a rare chance to see inside the glorious romanesque church of Santa Cecilia, with its capitals of the massacre of the innocents. Then further up the Pisuerga, getting much livelier once its waters stop getting nicked by the reservoir and the canal. Aguilar is a very handsome town and, 28 or so pleasant km upstream, so is Cervera de Pisuerga, much smaller but with similar arcades. And a very comfortable and welcoming private Albergue Rivera de Pisuerga. Also more romanesque, gothic and renaissance on the way, and wonderful mountain views.

Currently in Velilla del río Carrión, hoping to do the scenic mountain route via Caminayo to Puente Almuhey tomorrow, but the cloud is very low and snow level close so may have to revise in the morning. The ancient Fuentes Támaricas here are dry so, according to Pliny the Elder, I should be dead within a week. Hope not.

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I have written to Ender to see if he has any advice or is in the area. Alan, if you are still online, send me your email address through a PM, and I will send an email putting you two in contact. It would be so great if you could meet him!

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I have written to Ender to see if he has any advice or is in the area. Alan, if you are still online, send me your email address through a PM, and I will send an email putting you two in contact. It would be so great if you could meet him!

thank you, I have sent you my email. Ender has very kindly responded to a post I put on the Facebook Olvidado page, and checked with a friend of his at 1600m on tomorrow's route who says I should be OK - "vas a encontrar el Hayedo con los colores del otoño y tiene que ser un espectáculo!!!! pon alguna foto mañana!!!! Buen camino"

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I'm suddenly paying even more attention to your posts, Alan, as this one is definitely on my radar.
I hope you enjoy the mountains and all the Romanesque goodies up there, and may the weather gods be kind to you!

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I reached Aguilar de Campoo and the Camino Olvidado in time for Saturday lunch and a rare chance to see inside the glorious romanesque church of Santa Cecilia, with its capitals of the massacre of the innocents.

Alan (no need to answer now, but I don’t want to forget this question) — is that the church over to the right and up a little hill before entering town? If so, it was locked tight when I went up on my way in. The fact that you say “rare chance” suggests that it’s not open generally, and I can’t find good info on opening hours, if any. How were you so lucky?

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If it was sunny this would probably rank as a top 10 day, but the first 3-4 hours were mostly spent inside a cloud, where the views are pretty much the same wherever you are. I'll still put it in the 40 or so of my "top 20" days.

Without the wikiloc tracks of enderjace I think this would be completely impossible. I left Velilla at first light, and you immediately go up into deep woods. Within a km of the village you have at least 5 separate junctions, each with plausible routes. Once I took a left, and wikiloc soon squeaked at me that I was going wrong, so I headed right, only to be squeaked at again. Only by looking very carefully at the junction could you see a tiny narrow goat track going through the middle. I got squeaked at many times in the first couple of hours, and each time had to find my way back to the safe green umbilical cord of ender's trail. So it took about 3 hours to do the first 8km to 1600m, mostly in a golden tunnel of autumn leaves underfoot and overhead, so it wasn't that bad. The woods were lovely dark and deep, and I may have had miles to go before my sleep, but I had absolutely no promises to keep.

At 1600m the cloud lifted and suddenly you could see the valleys beneath, even the flat of the plains to the far south, and once I found myself looking down on a couple of eagles circling below me. Just wonderful.

After an hour on the ridge at 1600m, you come down sharply to pretty Caminayo, where Zosi the mayor (and one of 2 permanent inhabitants, plus a friendly huge mountain dog) was keeping an eye out for me and put me back onto the proper track when I thought I wasn't supposed to cross an electric fence. The 7km to Morgovejo were astonishingly beautiful. Following the river steadily downstream, almost entirely off tarmac, through glorious autumn colours, with streams and rivulets rushing to enlarge the river. It reminded me slightly of the lovely lost valley of Aciberos near Puebla de Sanabria, since bulldozed to oblivion for the AVE, but with beech and oak instead of chestnuts. Shortly outside Puente Almuhey, Zosi passed by in his car and fetched the albergue key, stamping my credential once I arrived there with the Caminayo sello, and buying me a caña in the village bar. Too kind.

Camino Busybody

Wow!
You are not far from where I live. Give me a call or whatsapp or whatever tomorrow (Thurs.) if you want to speak English. I'll buy the first round. (where do you expect to end up on Thurs?) 648 854 765.
Love those mountains. Ready for a excursion!
Reb.

Moderator

If it was sunny this would probably rank as a top 10 day, but the first 3-4 hours were mostly spent inside a cloud, where the views are pretty much the same wherever you are. I'll still put it in the 40 or so of my "top 20" days.

Without the wikiloc tracks of enderjace I think this would be completely impossible. I left Velilla at first light, and you immediately go up into deep woods. Within a km of the village you have at least 5 separate junctions, each with plausible routes. Once I took a left, and wikiloc soon squeaked at me that I was going wrong, so I headed right, only to be squeaked at again. Only by looking very carefully at the junction could you see a tiny narrow goat track going through the middle. I got squeaked at many times in the first couple of hours, and each time had to find my way back to the safe green umbilical cord of ender's trail. So it took about 3 hours to do the first 8km to 1600m, mostly in a golden tunnel of autumn leaves underfoot and overhead, so it wasn't that bad. The woods were lovely dark and deep, and I may have had miles to go before my sleep, but I had absolutely no promises to keep.

At 1600m the cloud lifted and suddenly you could see the valleys beneath, even the flat of the plains to the far south, and once I found myself looking down on a couple of eagles circling below me. Just wonderful.

After an hour on the ridge at 1600m, you come down sharply to pretty Caminayo, where Zosi the mayor (and one of 2 permanent inhabitants, plus a friendly huge mountain dog) was keeping an eye out for me and put me back onto the proper track when I thought I wasn't supposed to cross an electric fence. The 7km to Morgovejo were astonishingly beautiful. Following the river steadily downstream, almost entirely off tarmac, through glorious autumn colours, with streams and rivulets rushing to enlarge the river. It reminded me slightly of the lovely lost valley of Aciberos near Puebla de Sanabria, since bulldozed to oblivion for the AVE, but with beech and oak instead of chestnuts. Shortly outside Puente Almuhey, Zosi passed by in his car and fetched the albergue key, stamping my credential once I arrived there with the Caminayo sello, and buying me a caña in the village bar. Too kind.

Ok, if I had to vote, I would be hard pressed to pick whether I like your prose or your pictures more. Spectacular seems a bit hyperbolic, but, Alan these are just amazing. I so hope that I can get there next year.

And I also very much hope you can meet up with Rebekah and Ender, though I would be quite jealous!

Veteran Member

Wow!
You are not far from where I live. Give me a call or whatsapp or whatever tomorrow (Thurs.) if you want to speak English. I'll buy the first round. (where do you expect to end up on Thurs?) 648 854 765.
Love those mountains. Ready for a excursion!
Reb.

Veteran Member

The bar where you drop off the albergue key doesn't open until 8am, but it's a short day and with low cloud it's barely light then anyway.

For the first half you are mostly off road on farm tracks, with many tasty sharp windfall apples and damsons, and bushes dripping with fat juicy sloes crying out to be made into gin. The blossoms here in April/May must be amazing.

At the sanctuary of Velilla, you go uphill quite sharply and back into thick woods, mostly chestnut and oak today. Occasionally the clouds lifted and you could see the peak of Peñacorada towering overhead. Partly the camino is on a Roman road put through to help crush the persistent upland celtiberian resistance.

About 3km before Cistierna, you circle Peñacorada into an immense commercial pine forest. The older trees are ready for harvesting and, when they start seriously extracting timber, the path will become a complete mess, but at the moment it's fine.

At 2pm local amigo Goyo was giving me the key to the albergue and an industrial strength blow heater for my bedroom. And by 3pm, just as the first serious rain of the day started, I was safely in the Moderno restaurant, tucking in to an excellent menú.

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At Cistierna you are on the Vadiniense camino as well as the Olvidado - indeed there is a rare Cerberus arrow, with heads pointing north and south for the Vad, and west for the Olvidado. You follow the Vadiniense for an hour or so south, and the pretty silvery fast flowing stream next to you turned out to be the Esla, very different from the wide, sluggish, bird rich river last seen just after joining the Camino Sanabrés from the Vía de la Plata a day north of Zamora.

The new version of the Olvidado goes uphill to San Pedro de Foncollada, 1-2 km longer than the flatter version, but very pretty. And then the necessary 2-3 romanesque or later churches to keep you going.

My father's unusual first name was Bonar, and I remember him telling me he shared it with a bridge in Scotland and a town in Spain. I never expected to pass through the latter. It's not the most exciting place on earth but, for the third day running, the rain arrived an hour after I did, so I'm not complaining.

Tomorrow, weather depending, either serious mountain work up to Vegacervera or, if it's really foul, a return feve to León and a rest day.

Active Member

If it was sunny this would probably rank as a top 10 day, but the first 3-4 hours were mostly spent inside a cloud, where the views are pretty much the same wherever you are. I'll still put it in the 40 or so of my "top 20" days.

Without the wikiloc tracks of enderjace I think this would be completely impossible. I left Velilla at first light, and you immediately go up into deep woods. Within a km of the village you have at least 5 separate junctions, each with plausible routes. Once I took a left, and wikiloc soon squeaked at me that I was going wrong, so I headed right, only to be squeaked at again. Only by looking very carefully at the junction could you see a tiny narrow goat track going through the middle. I got squeaked at many times in the first couple of hours, and each time had to find my way back to the safe green umbilical cord of ender's trail. So it took about 3 hours to do the first 8km to 1600m, mostly in a golden tunnel of autumn leaves underfoot and overhead, so it wasn't that bad. The woods were lovely dark and deep, and I may have had miles to go before my sleep, but I had absolutely no promises to keep.

At 1600m the cloud lifted and suddenly you could see the valleys beneath, even the flat of the plains to the far south, and once I found myself looking down on a couple of eagles circling below me. Just wonderful.

After an hour on the ridge at 1600m, you come down sharply to pretty Caminayo, where Zosi the mayor (and one of 2 permanent inhabitants, plus a friendly huge mountain dog) was keeping an eye out for me and put me back onto the proper track when I thought I wasn't supposed to cross an electric fence. The 7km to Morgovejo were astonishingly beautiful. Following the river steadily downstream, almost entirely off tarmac, through glorious autumn colours, with streams and rivulets rushing to enlarge the river. It reminded me slightly of the lovely lost valley of Aciberos near Puebla de Sanabria, since bulldozed to oblivion for the AVE, but with beech and oak instead of chestnuts. Shortly outside Puente Almuhey, Zosi passed by in his car and fetched the albergue key, stamping my credential once I arrived there with the Caminayo sello, and buying me a caña in the village bar. Too kind.

Veteran Member

It was sheeting with rain when I went to bed, and still bucketing down when I looked out at 6.30am, so I thought, looks like a feve trip to León today. But somehow while I was in the bath, the cloud lifted and by soon after 8 the whole valley was bathed in a pale watery gold sunrise. It was far too good to waste, so León will just have to wait.

At Valdepielago the camino starts moving sharply uphill towards the trenches on the Peña Morqueda, once the main defensive line of the Republic's Northern Front. It's quite tough in places - some overgrown broom and gorse, and of course after all the rain, today the camino was a running stream, which doesn't help. But astonishingly beautiful, with new vistas opening up at every turn. At about noon I was opposite the hermitage San Froilán built for himself in c850AD (with some help from his pet wolf) and sorely tempted to detour to have a look, but it would have been an extra hour on quite a strenuous day, and the clouds were returning, so I sighed and carried on.

On and up over summer pastures with pretty autumn crocuses underfoot, and yet more views on every side. Then downhill, not as steep as the uphill earlier, and nothing like as narrow, until you hit the hamlet of Correcillas, with delicious only just above freezing water. And on down to Vegacervera, which was celebrating its annual Fiesta de la Cecina de Chivo, so of course I had some of that for lunch, and very tasty it was, and welcome after the day's exertions.

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You've got us wrapped around your little finger, Alan, hanging on every word.
Glorious. Too bad you missed San Froilán and his pet wolf, but it's refreshing to know that remote places are still remote up in those hills.
Thanks also for the botanical notes - they really bring a vivid sense of where you're walking. Not everyone consciously notices plants, but they are such a fundamental part of defining a landscape.

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The sun did not shine, it was too wet to play, so I carried on up the hill all that cold cold wet day.

For an hour or so from Vegacervera you follow the Coladilla river up its increasingly narrow gorge. At the village of Villar del Puerto, you cross a watershed and join the canyon of the Ciñera river. At which point you fall off a cliff. It's very very dramatic and would be even more beautiful if the clouds weren't at knee height. Very slippery, very steep, quite scary, very lovely, even in driving rain. I later discovered that my crab-like descent was being videoed by a group of bemused Madrid tourists who'd walked up the easy way. They were astonished to be told that they were on a camino de Santiago, and I expect there's a YouTube somewhere entitled "how the English like to spend a rainy Sunday morning".

Duck boards take you down the river and eventually to the village of Ciñera. At which point, as it was still bucketing down, I decided not to head back up the hill into the cloud to Buiza. If I want panoramic 360° views of the inside of a cloud, I'll stay at home. Asking the kind barman if there was a pensión in the village he said no, but I'll call Ender and he'll take you to La Pola de Gordón, where there is one. So I got to meet the Angel of the Olvidado, and we had a very pleasant chat and he did indeed drive me to the next village, and I hope I didn't leave too much water on the seat of his car.

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A 5 star day, 6 if that was possible. The highest point of the Olvidado, literally and (so far) metaphorically.

I'm so very glad I did this on a mostly clear bright autumn day, rather than waste it in yesterday's cloud. Nearly 900m of cumulative ascent can be quite a lot, but it was spread over 7-8km and had the advantage that the camino weaved its way upwards, giving different vistas to each side and later down at every turn, so it was certainly not dull. And if by this point on the Olvidado you can't do a bit of uphill, you never will be able to.

Not far from the highest point you find yourself being frowned down on by the slightly stern snow-capped ridges of the Pico de Santiago. At 1671m, the pass is significantly higher than O'Cebreiro or Lepoeder or anywhere on the Plata, and there was a couple of inches of snow, undisturbed except by me since it fell. The descent is just as pretty for the next hour, when you enter the desfiladero de los Calderones, a dramatic narrow twisting gorge, with waterfalls and high cliffs. At one point the noisy river disappears underground and you are left in total silence for a km or so until, near the cave of the Virgen del Manadero, it remerges from underground just as suddenly.

Quite spectacular, both climbing up to the high passes in the morning, and going through the narrow canyon in the afternoon, and all in total solitude.

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A much less dramatic day, but still very beautiful. The bar was open early, so with Venus blazing abnormally brightly I had my toast and coffee. Then back up the hill, through lovely oak groves and eventually on to a wide open heath, with views back to yesterday's excitements, and ahead to, I think, the pass I'll have to go up in 2 days to get to the Campo of Santiago above Fasgar. A couple of villages en route: one of them, Villayuste, appeared to be auditioning for a modern upgrade of Buñuel's Los Hurdes, with concrete streets, scary dogs and a small loose bull standing by the fuente. I said to myself "I don't really want any water just now."

At Riello you pass the last shop before going up the top, and join the stream Omaña, which takes you steadily uphill through more lovely woods, eventually to Vegarienza, home of the oldest bar in León province. Where, after being ushered through the kitchen, I was given a tasty and filling menú, my last for at least a couple of days.

Estela, the hugely helpful hospitalera at Vegarienza, showed me the albergue and very kindly gave me some milk to use in my morning coffee as the bar won't be open, so thoughtful. And in an hour or two I will be asleep, lulled by one of my favourite sounds - a busy mountain stream in a hurry to get to the sea.

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The sun did not shine, it was too wet to play, so I carried on up the hill all that cold cold wet day.

For an hour or so from Vegacervera you follow the Coladilla river up its increasingly narrow gorge. At the village of Villar del Puerto, you cross a watershed and join the canyon of the Ciñera river. At which point you fall off a cliff. It's very very dramatic and would be even more beautiful if the clouds weren't at knee height. Very slippery, very steep, quite scary, very lovely, even in driving rain. I later discovered that my crab-like descent was being videoed by a group of bemused Madrid tourists who'd walked up the easy way. They were astonished to be told that they were on a camino de Santiago, and I expect there's a YouTube somewhere entitled "how the English like to spend a rainy Sunday morning".

Duck boards take you down the river and eventually to the village of Ciñera. At which point, as it was still bucketing down, I decided not to head back up the hill into the cloud to Buiza. If I want panoramic 360° views of the inside of a cloud, I'll stay at home. Asking the kind barman if there was a pensión in the village he said no, but I'll call Ender and he'll take you to La Pola de Gordón, where there is one. So I got to meet the Angel of the Olvidado, and we had a very pleasant chat and he did indeed drive me to the next village, and I hope I didn't leave too much water on the seat of his car.View attachment 48673

Déjà vu, Alan.This Etapa kept on surprising me. With its stunning, ever changing, mountain vistas, switchback tracks where angels would fear to tread never mind goats. Suspended from the walls of the canyon, man-made boardwalks, criss-crossing the relentless flow below you.Then when you think it's all over you arrive at the Faedo de Ciñera.
The Faedo is a centuries-old beech forest, some up to 500 years old, declared the best forest in Spain.
Then you come across a small entrance to an old mine, with mining implements displayed as in a museum,giving a reminder to a now defunct coal industry. For me today was definitely up there with the best of them. Cheers,Mick.

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After a couple more km following the Omaña upstream, the road and river splits, and you are beside the Valle Gordo all the way the Fasgar, the end of the road.

Most of the rest of the day is off tarmac, through several pretty villages, most of which appear, if not thriving, certainly not dying, and the road, when you have to walk along it, is surprisingly busy.

A bit after half way up, near Barrio de la Puente, a car pulled up and Rosi, the Fasgar hospitalera, offered to take my rucksack off me. You may cease to notice it when you're carrying it for days on end, but you certainly notice when suddenly you aren't. Lovely.

Fasgar itself seemed to be reversing its decline. The permanent population may be only 31, but with some young people like Rosi returning, there is hope. When I went in for a caña, 10 men aged between 30 and 80 were drinking and playing cards in the social centre downstairs from the albergue so, with Rosi, I've met over a third of the population. Rosi tells me that tomorrow, going up to the Campo de Santiago, is la reina de las étapas on the Olvidado do. It's got some stiff competition from several days of the last week.

Moderator

After a couple more km following the Omaña upstream, the road and river splits, and you are beside the Valle Gordo all the way the Fasgar, the end of the road.

Most of the rest of the day is off tarmac, through several pretty villages, most of which appear, if not thriving, certainly not dying, and the road, when you have to walk along it, is surprisingly busy.

A bit after half way up, near Barrio de la Puente, a car pulled up and Rosi, the Fasgar hospitalera, offered to take my rucksack off me. You may cease to notice it when you're carrying it for days on end, but you certainly notice when suddenly you aren't. Lovely.

Fasgar itself seemed to be reversing its decline. The permanent population may be only 31, but with some young people like Rosi returning, there is hope. When I went in for a caña, 10 men aged between 30 and 80 were drinking and playing cards in the social centre downstairs from the albergue so, with Rosi, I've met over a third of the population. Rosi tells me that tomorrow, going up to the Campo de Santiago, is la reina de las étapas on the Olvidado do. It's got some stiff competition from several days of the last week.

Oh, please give Rosi a hug for me. I am not sure whether she will remember me, but I slept in her house, and attended her daughter´s 3rd birthday party in the bar. At that time, everyone in the village was able to fit into the bar. Such a beautiful place!

It is a beautiful stage, but she is probably not comparing it to Ender's two new mountain etapas -- your pictures have left us slack-jawed!

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Despite only leaving at 8.30, the village was still tightly shut up so I didn't see Rosi again, although I blessed her profusely for leaving me out some milk for my morning coffee. She had told me I was the first person to pass up this way in 3 weeks, which was a surprise.

There's a steady uphill track taking you back up to 1600m for the third and last time in 10 dsys, with a handy three spouted fuente shortly before the top - although with water gushing on every side, you're unlikely to die of thirst. Then down to the serene wide Campo de Santiago, with its tiny chapel and its wall of mountains on every side. Well, every side but one, as you're soon in yet another canyon, this one of the beautiful busy Boeza, cascading noisily down a narrow defile of sometimes awkward wet rocky descents. I was relieved that there were some new footbridges, as the old Indiana Jones-style ones nearby looked very rickety. Slightly surprised to see a salamander on the path, and less so that there was quite a lot of fly agaric. 12km from Fasgar gets you to Colinas del Campo de Martín Moro Toledano, the longest place-name in Spain. To get from here to Fasgar by car would be 78km. The Boeza then takes you all the way down to Igüeña, all off road, all though beautiful woods. At Igüeña I was for the first time in 10 days under 3000 feet above sea level. Looks like it might be a clear night for the Leonids meteor shower.

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Despite only leaving at 8.30, the village was still tightly shut up so I didn't see Rosi again, although I blessed her profusely for leaving me out some milk for my morning coffee. She had told me I was the first person to pass up this way in 3 weeks, which was a surprise.

There's a steady uphill track taking you back up to 1600m for the third and last time in 10 dsys, with a handy three spouted fuente shortly before the top - although with water gushing on every side, you're unlikely to die of thirst. Then down to the serene wide Campo de Santiago, with its tiny chapel and its wall of mountains on every side. Well, every side but one, as you're soon in yet another canyon, this one of the beautiful busy Boeza, cascading noisily down a narrow defile of sometimes awkward wet rocky descents. I was relieved that there were some new footbridges, as the old Indiana Jones-style ones nearby looked very rickety. Slightly surprised to see a salamander on the path, and less so that there was quite a lot of fly agaric. 12km from Fasgar gets you to Colinas del Campo de Martín Moro Toledano, the longest place-name in Spain. To get from here to Fasgar by car would be 78km. The Boeza then takes you all the way down to Igüeña, all off road, all though beautiful woods. At Igüeña I was for the first time in 10 days under 3000 feet above sea level. Looks like it might be a clear night for the Leonids meteor shower.

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The cows must have been on their winter pasture, nothing at all up there at the moment, although there were a few just before Los Calderónes a couple of days before.

Igüeña to Losada.

Mostly on pleasant woodland trails, with views of the higher hills on both sides
About 5km from Igüeña there was a trifurcation with a signs on to Astorga and Santiago, and back to Oviedo. Also a couple of crosses, one claiming to mark the passage of the first pilgrim there. Alfonso II. I thought he took the primitivo?

Steadily downhill, with the first vines in a fortnight, even some olives. The kind barman at the Bar Losada, where I stayed gave me some of his delicious roast peppers from his allotment.and treated my streaming cold with honey, hot milk and cognac. That effectively was the end of my unforgettable Olvidado, as today I crossed over to Ponferrada rather than carrying on on the official route to Villafranca del Bierzo.